1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to data processing systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to communication processes for hardware initialization within data processing systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The design, development, and implementation of processor chips for utilization in data processing systems require firmware initialization of various settings of the processors and/or the embedded cores. For example initialization of settings such as chicken switches, system configuration, and empirically determined characterization settings for both general processor and specific core operations are required in order to operate a given system. The process of performing the chip initialization has historically been completed multiple times, including, for example, during simulation, during lab tooling, and/or during production of the actual system that the chipset resides in. Each of the above steps of the design, development and implementation cycles (i.e., simulation, lab, and production) requires multiple rewrites of the initialization code throughout the chipset life cycle.
Also, the initialization code for a specific chipset must be customized to contain the initialization unique to a specific system in which that chipset is to be utilized. Thus, for each new system and for every slight modification or tweak to the chipset, the initialization firmware must be updated since the firmware contains intimate knowledge of how to move data into the hardware. When a vendor or system manufacturer wants to support a new layout or variation of the chipset, a new code must be written and updated. This requires the vendor or system manufacturer to understand and acquire knowledge of the chipsets registers, layout, replication and interactions.